I am following the World Chess Championship 2007 in spite of confusing rules of FIDE to determine the next world champion. Anand and others say the format is biased and designed to suit Russian (Kramnik) and Bulgarian (Topalov) lobbies. Anand also says that he does not want to dip inside the muddled waters of FIDE politics. He rather concentrates on chess matches. So far so good. When you follow a chess match, you have to participate in the process. Imagine watching a live chess match without any thoughts. It is not possible. You have to think about it. But if you think it is as good as you are playing. Not like other sports where you can watch live without doing anything that is connected with those sports. I watched Yuvraj's six sixers. But I did not feel the physical effort involved in that power hitting - meaning there is no pain or strain on my shoulders. Leave the mental efforts alone.

Now what am I writing...

I am supposed to write about masala dosa and mangalooru bajji.

Where is the link?

The link is the Janatha Hotel, 8th cross, Malleswaram, Bangalore.

I am sitting here in the hotel and thinking about what are the differences between watching chess live and watching other sports like cricket, hockey, football, etc live.

I am waiting for my masala dosa. It is surprising. Surprising to see people wait outside the hotel. You think there is no surprise about that as far Janatha Hotel is concerned? Surprising to see people wait outside when the hotel is closed. Ah! that's something, isn't it?

The hotel opens at 4pm. People wait from 3:30pm.

People?

A husband, A wife, and their small girl who asks sambar for Masala dosa which is not given at the hotel. Pay extra for extra sambar.

Two ladies with newly bought something.

Two girls who swallow mangalooru bajjis as fast as they send SMS.

An old man who sips coffee and thinks about good old days.

A girl who is carrying and is thinking possibly about the kid that is shaping up.

Two grandmothers with their grand-daughters eating some sweets which are possibly banned at home.

All these people are united. United to taste the time-tested Janata servings.

And what am I doing now? I am supposed to think about differences between watching a chess match and a cricket game. But here I am. Sitting and watching Janata's Janata.

Masala Dosa emerges just in front of me. Crispy and slightly sticky too. Pudina leaves are floating on the chutney. The chutney seems to be watery but it is not. You just dip your finger to feel the solid sediments of chutney.

I unroll the dosa to see the beauty of potato masala and grey chutney talking to each other on the crispy grass of masala dosa. I envy them. What is better than discussing chess with potato masala?

Small piece of dosa along with solid sediments of white chutney rolled together and meet their destiny in my mouth. I am watching ...

Chess is such a beautiful game that you do not mind losing yourself. Not just losing yourself but getting lost. I still remember a chess game I played with my friend in Tambaram bus stand. Without a board. How?

e4e5Nf3Nf6

We played and pushed the game to its middle. We then found it quite difficult to analyse the position without board. Board is the substratum. Just like our experiences with relationships are to understand ourselves.

Where am I?

Who has eaten my Masala Dosa?

I must have achieved that in no time - much faster than how Anand plays a double knight Ruy Lopez variation.

Some say - Do not play Catalan against Kramnik. Sicilian against Kasparov, etc. But I play Mangalooru Bajji next.

Four small balls come. Elastic balls. Quite hot. Quite crispy. When I went to Mangalooru I asked Mangalooru bajji. They brought something quite different. I thought this is similar to how Hosur road, somewhere in its path, transforms itself to Bengalooru Road.

The small girl sitting opposite does not want to come out. The mother insists. But the girl moves between the table and the bench. The girl is quite happy with the masala dosa.

I am also happy with my dosa and bajjis. What next?

What will happen to this blog? How do I want to continue this? Chess statistics? Personal rants? Why I have to continue this? What is the big deal in saying I maintain a blog?

Hahahahhaa.....Hahahahhh.....

Two old men are laughing loudly.

Where are we?

Did I write "why I have to continue this blog"? No. It can't be true. Did I write that?

Masala Dosa is nice. Bajji is good. Something is still incomplete. Feeling of incompletion and feeling of something more might have created those words. Not me.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

It was a classroom. The sixth standard classroom. The mathematics teacher was strolling. From left to right. After few cycles, from front to back. He had given an exercise to the students. Two, in fact. One was an algebra problem and the other was a geometrical construction. The eyes of the students were showing the signs of fear, excitement, joy, tension, wonder, etc. depending upon the mind to which they belonged. But the teacher was ruthless.

If he saw something silly, he would stop and give a special treatment of impulse-strike, aided by his strong knuckles, on the head. He was sincere in trying to explain things. You had to tell him that you did not understand. He would explain. Again tell him that you did not understand. He would explain. Again tell him that you did not understand. He was quite patient. He would explain again. Explain again and again. Tell him you had understood and do a simple and silly mistake. You would then know what others were always saying - that he was a good volley-ball player. The only thing was the hit would leave a mark on your head.

He was interested in answers as well as how it was written (algebra) and drawn (geometry construction). The line that comes between numerator and denominator would often become a line that brings you either good pat or hit. The circles and lines should be circles and lines of same thickness. If you were going to draw a line second time to get good impression, you better do it for that line completely. If some portion of the line had more strokes than the other, the stroke you left would emerge on your head or palm.

Once a parent came and asked him in front of us, why did he reduce some marks though their son had correctly constructed the geometrical object. He said,

"Mathematics is a beautiful subject. When you write about such a beautiful subject, there is no place for any ugliness there. Whether you write or talk or communicate or learn, you have to do justice to the beauty of the content. You have to discipline yourself to appreciate the subject. Just knowing how to construct will not do. It is not enough for me."

That was Chandran Sir.

I did not understand completely then. That was the age where you would associate beauty to visuals and sounds; not to few symbols and their meanings. Those words and their contents have grown along various directions over a period of time destroying the artificial markings of human exploration. They go beyond subjects and ideas. Stressing the importance of how you could express something beautiful in a beautiful manner is such a wonderful feeling to pass it on to the next generation.

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Dr. Rangaswamy Narasimhan, the designer of India’s first general purpose digital computer, died in Bangalore yesterday.

He played a crucial role in institutional development - Computer Science and Technology Lab at TIFR, Computer Society of India, Computer Maintenance Corporation (CMC), and National Center for Software Technology.

What should India do when patents are granted to traditional knowledge components? We normally listen to the lament that our documentation of our traditional knowledge is poor, and hence we are losing out in the present age of patenting anything and everything.

India’s strategy on patents arising out of traditional knowledge has been flawed. It has been focusing on proving that we have documentation for our TK (Traditional Knowledge). Much of India’s own TK must necessarily be unrecorded. Even where records exist, they were meant not as a legally rigorous treatise, but as an aid to oral transmission. Digitisation of TK can only prevent granting of frivolous patents, which, even if left alone, can neither benefit the “inventor” nor harm India. Digitisation may in fact act as an aid to researchers eyeing Indian TK as a guide to focused lab work.

India’s approach towards TK should be proactive rather than defensive. Instead of acting as a documentation assistant for others, it should molecularise its own tradition in healthcare and benefit therefrom under the present patent regime. Most of TK resides in the third world countries and is largely undocumented. India should evolve a strategy that can be adopted by other countries as well. Instead of trying to convince petty U.S. officials that our TK is indeed documented, India should try to work towards evolving a world consensus on the patentability of results of lab research which uses TK as the starting point.

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